3/20/06—Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that Harold Hongju Koh will be speaking on campus on April 3, 2006, as part of the School’s 75th Celebration speaker series. Koh will receive the Law School’s Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the legal profession in the field of international law.

Harold Hongju Koh is Dean of Yale Law School and Gerard C. And Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law. He is a leading expert on international law, international human rights, national security law, and international economic law.

Dean Koh served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1998-2001. He was a clerk to Hon. Harry A. Blackmun, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court from 1981-1982 and was selected to conduct oral history interviews with Justice Blackmun in 1994. Koh earned a B.A. and J.D. from Harvard University, and an Honours B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University. Harold Koh’s father, Kwang Lim Koh was the first Asian (Korean) to graduate from Boston College Law School. He graduated in 1961. Koh, his brother, Howard, his mother, Dr. Hesung Chun Koh, and his father were recently named to the K100 -- the 100 leading Koreans and Korean-Americans in the last century of Korean immigration to the United States.

Koh has written more than 80 articles and is author or co-editor of seven books, receiving the American Political Science Association’s award for best book on the American presidency for The National Security Constitution. He has received 10 honorary awards, including the Wolfgang Friedman Memorial Award from Columbia Law School and the Louis B. Sohn Award from the American Bar Association for his contributions to International law. He has received more than 20 awards for his human rights work, including the Human Rights Award of the Cuban-American Bar Association and the Justice in Action Award from the Asian-American Lawyers’ Association.

The event will take place in the Law School’s East Wing building, room 120, at 4:00 p.m. A reception with light refreshments will follow.